Northern Dispatch

13/09/2026

EDITORIAL | The harder questions are: who gained power from the arrangement, who was held accountable for the violence that followed, and whether Cordillera communities gained meaningful authority over their ancestral lands, resources, and political future.

Read more: https://tinyurl.com/3p4kvtfy

13/09/2026

CORPUS JURIS | Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival has given Balanghai trophies for Best Acting Performance by an Ensemble eight times: Tribu (2007); Mga Mumunting Lihim (2012); Transit (2013); (2014); Hiblang Abo (2016); Duyan ng Magiting (2023); Open Endings (2025); and Tayo Lang Ang Nakakaalam (2026).

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3 MIN READCinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival has given Balanghai trophies for Best Acting Performance by an Ensemble eight times: Tribu (2007); Mga Mumunting Lihim (2012); Transit (2013); (2014); Hiblang Abo (2016); Duyan ng Magiting (2023); Open Endings (2025); and Tayo Lang Ang Nak...

13/09/2026

Kalinga town calls on tourists to respect batok tradition

TINGLAYAN, Kalinga (Sept. 12, 2026) — The Tinglayan municipal government called on visitors to respect Kalinga traditions after a foreign tourist reportedly insisted that Apo Whang-od tattoo an intimate part of his body in Barangay Buscalan.

The local government said the incident showed the risk of treating the centuries-old Kalinga “batok” tradition as a tourist stunt, personal dare or social media novelty. It said a practitioner’s consent does not automatically make a visitor’s request culturally proper or respectful.

Traditional Kalinga “batok,” performed using a pomelo thorn and bamboo mallet, carries generations of history, symbolism and community identity, the LGU said.
Officials warned that reducing the practice to an unusual body-art experience strips it of its cultural meaning.

The LGU said it welcomes tourists, media and content creators to Buscalan but urged them to observe proper cultural etiquette and approach “batok” with sensitivity.

“Come to Kalinga with curiosity, but also with respect,” the LGU said. “Our culture is not a prop. Our traditions are not a joke. Our heritage is not a souvenir.”

It added that visitors should come to understand and appreciate Kalinga culture rather than turn its traditions into entertainment or “cheap thrills.” # (Artemio A. Dumlao)

13/09/2026

PATHLESS TRAVELS | The massive electoral rejection of both Organic Acts in the two successive regional plebiscites signified the utter isolation of the CPLA-CBAd and the flimsy standing of the bogus versions of “regional autonomyˮ that they and their traditional bureaucratic allies were pushing for. Their dreams of dominating a merely decorative and performative “autonomous regionˮ collapsed. Not surprisingly, CPLA-CBAd factional infighting worsened throughout the 1990s.

Read more: https://tinyurl.com/y46duk47

13/09/2026

Group renews Marcos wealth, estate tax accountability call

BAGUIO CITY (Sept. 11, 2026) — The Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA) renewed calls for accountability over alleged ill-gotten wealth and unpaid estate taxes of the Marcos family on Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s birth anniversary.

CARMMA said the Marcos estate still owes P203 billion in taxes following a Supreme Court ruling that became executory in March 1999. The group also criticized the Bureau of Internal Revenue for failing to enforce the ruling.

“Imagine how many worthwhile projects this amount could have funded for the people’s welfare,” CARMMA spokesperson Kris Lacaba said.

The group also cited figures from the Presidential Commission on Good Government, which it said had conservatively estimated the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth at P250 billion. According to CARMMA, the PCGG has secured only partial judgments involving P34 billion in assets.

“This leaves more than P200 billion more of their ill-gotten wealth untouched,” Lacaba said.

CARMMA added that 67 ill-gotten wealth cases involving about P70 billion in assets remain under appeal.

The group also criticized the dismissal of what it described as the last remaining ill-gotten wealth case against the family and the acquittal of former first lady Imelda Marcos, who had been convicted of seven counts of graft in 2018.

CARMMA said decades of proceedings showed failures by the PCGG and the justice system to hold the Marcos family accountable. # (Sherwin De Vera)

13/09/2026

POINT AND SHOOT | Hinding-hindi nakakalimutan ng mga taong sinalanta ng sakuna kung sino ang dumating nang kailangan nila ang gobyerno, lalong-lalo na ang humakbang upang masolusyunan ang kanilang mga suliranin.

Basahin ang artikulo: https://tinyurl.com/bdfzx93k

12/09/2026

IT HAD TO BE SAID | Ladies and gents, when the Mines and Geosciences Bureau renewed Crescent Mining and Development Corporation’s 25-year mining agreement in March 2022, there was no completed Free and Prior Informed Consent and no Certification Precondition issued by the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples.

Read more: https://tinyurl.com/yatw7kzk

12/09/2026

NEWS | “Is telling the real situation of vegetable farmers an anti-government act?” The Kanatengan Network posed that question in a Sept. 9 statement in Ilokano after members said police officers labeled the group anti-government and discouraged them from joining.

Read more: https://tinyurl.com/4hcy3ud5
Photo from Kanatengan Network

12/09/2026

Baguio creates new panels on illegal structures, squatting

BAGUIO CITY (Sept. 10, 2026) — The city government has reorganized its anti-illegal structures body and created a separate committee against squatting syndicates and professional squatters under two executive orders signed by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong.

Executive Order No. 126 reconstituted the City Anti-Illegal Structures Committee, chaired by Assistant City Building Officer Engr. Stephen Capuyan. It will investigate complaints involving illegal structures and construction that violate the National Building Code and other laws and ordinances, and recommend demolition orders to the mayor.

The committee will also monitor demolition activities and handle complaints involving structures on unregistered land, titled properties, road rights-of-way, public and danger areas, forest reservations, greenbelts, watersheds, waterways, government reservations, and other lands of public interest.

Executive Order No. 127 created the Committee Against Squatting Syndicates and Professional Squatters, chaired by the mayor. Its members include representatives from city offices, police, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor, an accredited urban poor organization, and the private sector.

The order directs the committee to “adopt necessary measures to identify and effectively curtail the activities of professional squatters and squatting syndicates, including identifying public officials, private individuals, or entities suspected of abetting or tolerating such activities.”

It will also provide housing agencies with lists of identified professional squatters and squatting syndicates, assist victims, investigate eviction and demolition cases, and monitor eviction and demolition activities.

The city said the second committee's creation follows Republic Act No. 7279, or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, and Executive Order No. 29 of 1993 on inter-agency action against illegal squatting activities. # (Kimberlie N. Quitasol)

12/09/2026

NEWS | Human rights defenders and activists facing terrorism-related cases have asked the Supreme Court to review two anti-terror laws, citing a growing number of cases that include the latest charges against 11 activists in Cagayan Valley.

Read more: https://tinyurl.com/ysv3kj9x
Photo by Gene Feliciano